Category Archives: Drone Sounds of the GHB

Drones are the most expensive part of the bagpipe. This is to be a resource of what different makers’ drones sound like with whatever particular reed happens to be in the drones.

New Hornpipe and thoughts on drone reeds

Drone Sounds of the GHB, Great Highland Bagpipe Solo

I’m not happy with how Ina MacKenzie is resting in my brain, so I might just play this new hornpipe I picked up the other day, Newmarket House. Very fun and fairly easy. Gellaitry pipes, Crozier Carbon tenors, Kinnaird bass, Husk chanter reed, and a SOS chanter that is out of tune because I didn’t bother to move any tape.

Newmarket House and Alan MacPherson of Mosspark

I’ve never thought plastic tongued tenor reeds did very well in reproducing the sound of cane. They sound nasal to me and don’t have the ‘sparkle’ of more exotic tongued tenor reeds in matching the sound of cane. Case in point:

Soren Larsen’s set of Henderson’s with cane bass, Ezee tenors first then cane tenors

Soren noted that the cane reeds were manufactured by Ronan Latry. Not that the overall sound with the Ezee’s is bad, just noticeably lacking in my opinion.

In that, I’ve had indications from many people that the Gellaitry’s are a bit bass dominant, so in thinking the Crozier Carbon had rather loud tenors, I switched them out for my Kinnaird tenors, leaving the Kinnaird bass. Oh well, I’m sticking with the Kinnaird tenors for now. I love it!

Gellaitry’s with Kinnaird bass and Crozier Carbon tenors first then Kinnaird tenors

New Crozier Glass versus optimal, established Setups

Drone Sounds of the GHB

So, I got a set of Crozier Glass drone reeds in from Gord over at Island Bagpipe on his recommendation. He’s had a set of Gellaitry’s identical to mine in stock for a long time. That he has had them so long is something that has really bothered me. I really, really, really like the sound of Gellaitry bagpipes. Get yourself one! Continuing on, Gord did some trials I believe and very much liked the sound of the Crozier Glass drone reeds in the Gellaitry pipes, hence why I ordered a set. I’ve got a set of Crozier’s Carbon and Cane but I find the bass reeds to be a bit weak relative to their very powerful and harmonic tenors, respectively (granted I haven’t fiddled with them all that much). BUT, the recordings below are plug and play, at least until you get to the Henderson recordings where I had to pull the plug out to reach a different pitch.

Below you’ll first find a recording of my favorite drone reeds thus far in the Gellaitry’s: Kinnaird’s! Great reeds. Then for comparison, I plugged in the Crozier Glass, tuned to the same pitch, and recorded again (all sans chanter). These pipes are tied into a grommetless Gannaway zip bag.

Gellaitry with Kinnaird

Gellaitry with Crozier Glass

Note that in all the recordings I stand at 4 different relative orientations to the microphones so the sound will change (and at times sound out of tune as I move). The 2nd and 4th orientations feature the tenors and bass respectively. One thing I’ve rarely heard with any other pipe is an overtone coming right off the bass. Tenors are one thing and fairly common, but off the bass and so strong, it’s incredible. You can hear it really well toward the end of the Crozier glass recording. While playing them, it sounds like it’s being emitted right out of the bass drone’s lower tuning chamber, cool eh? You can hear these pipes under the same recording conditions with (Naill) Rocket, Crozier Carbon, and Crozier Cane in this post.

Then, to get an idea of what is Crozier Glass sound and what is drone sound I repeated the process with my 1950’s Henderson’s, first with the (Naill) Rocket tenors and Canning bass, then recorded with all Crozier Glass. These pipes have a pure synthetic Monarch zip bag with grommets.

1950’s Henderson with (Naill) Rocket tenors and Canning bass

1950’s Henderson with Crozier Glass

So, this is a tough decision. I very much like the sound of the Crozier Glass in both pipes, but I’m not sure I like it more than what I already had. Definitely strong contenders if not and easily take 2nd place. What do you think?

If I don’t switch them in to either of these pipes, I bet they’ll feel right at home in the set of MacPherson’s I ordered. Peace and Enjoy your Piping!